Shannon Thomas‘ pitch last March on the final night of Startup Weekend Des Moines wasn’t quite enough to win over the judges — her startup, Fundle, earned best pitch but didn’t finish among the top three overall* — but it helped her catch the attention of the one person in the room who turned out to matter most of all.

“I have always had a passion for startups, and that passion was highly accelerated when I met my current business partner – together we began to build SliceBiz, a tech startup with the vision to support other African startups through mobile- and web-based crowdfunding. The roots of our company come from great initiatives like GEW and Startup Weekend. My co-founder and I pitched the idea at Startup Weekend Accra, and with a lot of hard work and a little bit of luck, we won!”

This is how Stefan Broda, founder of BeforeWeDo, opened his pitch on stage in the final round of the 14th Founder Showcase in Silicon Valley.

“Do I have everybody’s attention?”

BeforeWeDo captivated the hearts and minds of judges by offering accurate, painless and private HIV & STD home tests. Noah Doyle of Javelin Ventures said, “This lean approach should be the new model for modern healthcare companies!”